The Ice Harvester's Hat
by Hathor-Aroha
Summary: Hours after the Great Thaw, Anna returns to her bedroom to discover the hat that Kristoff had given her when she was freezing to death on the way back to Arendelle.


**The Ice Harvester's Hat**

When Anna returned to her bedroom in the castle the same night of the Great Thaw, she discovered a hat on her bed, left there by a servant mere hours ago. It wasn't any of her hats, but nevertheless one so intimately familiar to her. She had seen it on the head of an ice harvester and he had it put on her own head as she froze to death while riding back to Arendelle via reindeer. Right before being helped through the doors of the library, one of the servants supporting her had removed the hat, assuring her that the fireplace burned fierce and hot inside and she would be warm in no time.

_I need to return this hat to Kristoff. _

Strolling to her bed, Anna reached with both hands for the clothing article. Her fingers brushed over the fluffy texture of wool, one thumb tracing a small patch on the hat. The patch's colour did not match the surrounding sea of dark grey, lighter in hue than the rest of the fabric. She tucked her hands inside the hat, wool fibres tickling her skin. Allowing her eyes to slide shut, she brought the hat close to her nose, inhaling its scent.

The musk of reindeer, Kristoff, and rock trolls mingled as one, a unique concoction of smells. Memories burned in her brain—of sleds, Sven, and antlers festooned with winter's magic. The memory of the odour of sweat as Kristoff's reindeer hared toward Arendelle, desperate to return a dying princess home, back to Prince Hans. The earthy aroma of rock trolls, bringing with it visages of moss, steaming puffs of geysers exploding from underground, and the open sky splashed in the rippling pink and green ribbons of auroras. With the scent of earth came memories of rock trolls unrolling themselves, rocks transforming into things with eyes, legs, arms, and mouths. Kristoff's family.

Mingling with reindeer odour was Kristoff's unique scent—a mix of hay, reindeer, earth, and outdoors. A unique mixture stirred a curious desire within her heart; she ached to see him again. Though hours had passed since she'd seen Kristoff, she yearned to reunite with him. She pictured his wide grin, his blond hair that could use a little trim, his entrancing hazel eyes, and just…everything about him. Anna allowed a little smile to pull at her lips as she imagined kissing him for the first time, tangling her fingers in his soft blond hair.

_His hair looks so soft I want to run my fingers through it. Wait, what? _

She recalled Kristoff's gruff voice that melted like chocolate when talking to her. How she had had to stuff her fist into her mouth to stopper her giggles when she'd heard him singing in his "reindeer voice" for Sven's part of his duet inside the vacant barn near Oaken's trading shop. She'd heard every last lyric and note of his song—Kristoff never gave a clear answer when she asked if he'd made it up on the spot or if it was something he'd come up with a long time ago. But at nights during their journey to and from Elsa's ice palace, when he thought Anna was asleep, Kristoff would start up another little ditty in _sotto voce_, so he would not wake the younger princess. Little did he know that she had listened to every one of his duets with Sven.

Anna lowered her arms, now clutching the hat against her chest over her heart, which only hours ago had been frozen. Inside the hat, her warm hands touched each other, palm to palm, reassuring Anna she was alive. But now she remembered Kristoff's own hands—large and calloused from a lifetime of ice harvesting and living in the outdoors. The same hands that saw many years of back-breaking toil had held Anna close to his chest, cradled in his arms as he walked to the gate of the palace.

_He loved me. He really _did _love me…_

Anna sunk down on her bed, lying back so her eyes looked at the ceiling. Closing her eyes, the princess revisited all those memories with Kristoff, how he had slowly warmed up to her over just a few days. Enough that he was willing to race back through the worst blizzard anyone had seen, just to know Anna was safe. To know the princess he had journeyed with over mountains, through snow, and over soil, was going to be okay. He couldn't bring himself to leave Arendelle behind, not while he worried for Anna's health.

_He really does care about me…_

Anna lowered her head, kissing the old, patched, woollen hat still cradled in her hands, resting on her chest. She was sure this was true love. He had returned for her, had seen her turn into ice and then thaw, had witnessed two sisters reuniting again with two of the warmest embraces Anna had since their parents' demise during a torrid thunderstorm at sea.

Still holding the hat to her chest, Anna stretched out a couple fingers, idly playing with the grey pom-pom on top of the hat. It was made of the same fabric as the rest of the hat, woollen and soft. She smiled, content in the knowledge that there was someone out there who needed her in his life.

_He really does love me. _

* * *

><p>A few days later, Anna finally saw Kristoff again, the hat clutched in her hands as she ran to where he stood with his reindeer at a vegetable stall. He threw a bunch of purchased carrots into a bag and tied it to Sven's harness, not noticing Anna standing just a few feet away from him.<p>

"Stocking up on carrot supplies, Kristoff?"

Kristoff turned his head at the sound of Anna's voice, running a hand through his hair, leaving a few strands sticking up from his scalp.

"Sorry Feisty-pants, didn't see you there." Kristoff grinned, leaning back with one arm slung across his reindeer's back. His eyes travelled down Anna's face to rest on the item clutched in her hands. Catching where his eyes had drifted, Anna grinned, flinging out an arm to present his old hat to him.

"I thought you'd need this more than me now that I'm not freezing," Anna explained.

A cocktail of thoughts warred in Kristoff's mind.

_She should keep it. But what other hat should I wear in the mountains?_

Kristoff studied Anna's face, so sincere and open. Her eyes gazed into his, a smile playing on her pink lips.

"You sure you want me to have it?" Kristoff asked.

"It's yours, isn't it?" Anna insisted. "I know you gave it to me to try and keep me warm when I was…you know."

Kristoff removed his arm from Sven's back and reached to clasp Anna's hands, including the hat, in his own.

"Anna, I know you want to give it back to me, but you can have it."

"No, no, it's yours," Anna repeated, "You need it more than I do now that I'm safe from freezing to death. Really, I mean it. I am grateful you had given it to me to try to warm me up, and I truly deeply appreciate that."

Anna withdrew her hands from Kristoff's clasp, leaving the hat behind.

"I mean, the cold probably doesn't bother you too much, seeing you lived your whole life around ice, but I still want you to be warm, just as you wanted to keep me as warm as you could a few days ago." The princess stopped short, wincing. "I'm rambling again, aren't I?"

"No more than usual," Kristoff grinned.

With that, the pair fell into a comfortable silence, one that did not hang awkward around them. Silence except for the hum of conversations of contented Arendelle citizens, Sven munching on a carrot, and the raised volumes of stall-holders bartering their goods and trades. All that mattered was this beautiful quietude between a young couple.

_So silence _can _be good between two friends, _Anna mused, _I don't always have to be yammering away. _

Kristoff glanced down at the hat held in one hand, bringing it up to his chest with a discreet inhalation—subtle enough so that Anna wouldn't notice. Again, the aromas of moss, earth, and reindeers streamed into his nose, yet with a new scent. The scent of chocolate, crocuses, and the rich perfume of a garden early in the morning. Anna looked at him with head tilted to one side as a slow creeping smile strolled from his mouth to the corners of his eyes.

"What're you smiling at?" Anna asked.

"What?" Kristoff snapped out of his trance, "Oh, at you, of course, who else?"

"Oh, I don't know?" Anna quipped with a mysterious air, "Maybe Sven?"

With a laugh, Kristoff's smile broke into a grin as he reached his arms for Anna, who returned his embrace with strong fervour, her head resting against his chest.

"I will always smile when you're around, Anna," Kristoff murmured into her hair, "Because you are worthy and beautiful."

"Hmm…" Anna hummed, closing her eyes with great content. "So are you."

As he held Anna, Kristoff absent-mindedly stroked his thumb over the fabric of his hat, knowing it had now a new, special scent, one he would always have with him when away in the mountains harvesting ice.

_No matter where I go, hat or no hat, _Kristoff mused, _I will always have Anna with me. _


End file.
